From the outside, Ravenna's churches are plain brick buildings, almost modest. You push the door and the gold appears: whole vaults of tesserae, processions of saints, starry skies laid fifteen centuries ago and still intact.
IAn imperial capital
In 402, the emperor Honorius made Ravenna the capital of the Western Roman Empire. The city then belonged to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, and later became the seat of Byzantine power in Italy. Each era left its mosaics there, which is why nowhere else holds so complete an ensemble.
Eight early Christian monuments of Ravenna have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1996.
IIThe sky of Galla Placidia
The fifth-century Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is tiny. But its vault is a deep blue night sky, scattered with golden stars around a cross. Visitors linger a long time, heads raised, in the half-light.
You will find that night blue and that gold again in our Nox Alpina. Ravenna's gold tesserae are made of gold leaf held between two layers of glass: set at a slight angle, they catch the light differently depending on where you stand.
IIISan Vitale and the waves
In San Vitale, consecrated in 547, the emperor Justinian and the empress Theodora face each other, surrounded by their courts, in panels of astonishing finesse. In Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, long processions of martyrs and virgins advance along the nave.
The borders of these mosaics are made of waves, scrolls and motifs that curl back on themselves. Our Vagues et coraux square was born of those friezes: the sea seen as a dance. Dante, who died in Ravenna in 1321, rests a few streets away.
Next journalZermatt, at the foot of the Matterhorn